JKWELL 
The  Presidential  Campaign 


E 

675 

J59 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN. 

- 

SPEECH 


GOVEKNOK  JEWELL 


CONNECTICUT, 


DELIVERED    AT 


COOPER    INSTITUTE, 


SEPTEMBER  llth,  1872.' 


!HARTFORD,  CONN.: 
CASE.  LOCKWOOD  &  BRAINARD,  PRINTERS. 

1872: 


:>r//a:   iio^iav' 


i 


BS8IJ3T1M3 


£ 


IIBRAR* 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


SPEECH. 

. 

~~ 

PERMIT  me  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  very  com- 
plimentary manner  in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  intro- 
duce me,  and  you,  fellow  citizens,  for  this  most  cordial  and 
flattering  reception  ;  which,  however  pleasant  to  me,  but  in- 
creases the  embarrassment  under  which  I  rise  to  address  you. 
Engrossed  as  I  am  in  my  public  and  private  duties,  (having 
devoted  my  life  almost  entirely  to  business  pursuits  —  politics 
being  an  affair  in  which  I  have  but  very  lately  taken  an  active 
part,)  I  should  have  followed  my  inclinations  and  declined 
the  polite  invitation  of  the  Republican  Committee  of  the 
State  of  New  York  to  appear  here  to-night,  had  I  not  become 
so  interested  in  this  campaign  that  I  find  it  impossible  to  keep 
out  of  it. 

I  do  not  propose  to  apologize  for  the  Republican  party,  its 
platform,  its  record,  or  its  candidates.  It  is  within  the  rec- 
ollection of  the  youngest  of  us,  when,  where,  and  how  this 
party  was  started.  At  its  birth  its  principles  were  very  brief, 
and  its  platform  still  more  so.  It  was  simply  this  :  "  Equal 
and  exact  justice  to  all  before  the  law."  A  party  that  could 
within  the  short  space  of  fifteen  or  twenty  years  achieve  what 
this  has  done,  that  could  turn  the  entire  current  of  thought 
of  the  most  progressive  nation  under  the  sun  from  its  old 
channels  of  looking  with  at  least  some  degree  of  toleration 
on  the  sin  of  human  slavery,  that  could  change  the  front  of 
40,000,000  of  people,  marching  with  the  strength  and  rapidity 
with  which  we  are  moving,  towards  the  highest  possible  civil- 
ization, an  achievement  so  remarkable,  so  noble,  so  important 
in  its  results  for  the  race,  needs  no  words  of  excuse  or  apolo- 
gy, not  only  for  its  existence  but  for  its  continuance.  Great 
as  have  been  its  achievements,  numerous  and  important  as  have 
been  its  victories,  much  as  it  has  accomplished,  there  still 
remains  much  to  be  done  before  it  will  have  fulfilled  its  mis- 


sion,  and  have  completely  carried  out  the  idea  of  freedom 
which  called  it  into  existence.  And  yet  we  are  finding  not  a 
few  who  have  heretofore  been  warmly  attached  to  the  fop- 
tunes  of  our  party,,  laying  that  all  the  good  which  it  can 
accomplish,  it  has  already  done,  and  that  it  ought  now  to  give 
way  to  other  issues,  and  ignominiously  perish.  Not  so  does 
it  look  to  me.  Our  party  must  continue  its  onward  and 
upward  progress  until  the  last  vestige  of  antagonism  between 
the  races  of  people,  of  which  our  nation  is  composed,  has 
been  completely  and  entirely  extinguished.  For  no  other 
possible  end  could  Providence  have  raised  up  this  magnificent 
and,  powerful  party.  No  compensation  but  this  will  be  equal 
to  the  fearful  loss  of  life  and  treasure  by  which  the  nation 
has  attained  its  present  position. 

If  any  bloody  chasms  still  exist,  it  is  the  duly  of  this  party 
to  fill  them  up,  and  to  plant  above  them  the  seeds  of  peace, 
prosperity,  and  unity.  Bloody  chasms  do  not  belong  to  an 
era,  to  a  people,  to  an  intelligence,  to  a  religion  like  GUI'S,  and 
it  is  only  necessary  that  we  attend  as  carefully  to  our  political 
duties  as  to  those  of  our  private  and  social  life,  to  make  our 
fair  land  what  we  have  each  one  of  us  been  hoping  and  ex- 
pecting it  would  be,  since  in  our  childhood  we  learned  the 
truisms  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Nothing  but  an 
earnest  wish  to  contribute  my  mite  to  the  accomplishment  of 
all  this  could  have  induced  me  to  leave  my  counting-room, 
and  appear  before  you,  to-night,  in  the  role  of  public  speaker. 

In  all  our  later  presidential  campaigns,  up  to  this,  we  have 
had  two  great  parties  confronting  each  other,  each  with  a  dis- 
tinct set  of  principles  and  candidates.  Candidates  have  here- 
tofore been  selected,  representing  the  principles  of  their  party, 
by  a  life-long  devotion  to  them,  and  an  earnest  wish  to  carry 
them  out,  and  each  surrounded  by  party  safeguards,  watch- 
words, and  histories,  which  like  an  unwritten  law  would  keep 
them -in  certain  grooves. 

But  this  year  how  different.  The  Republican  party,  true  to 
its  traditions,  has  put  forward  its  platform,  and  on  it  its  can- 
didates, pledged  by  their  past  history  to  carry  out  to  the 
letter  the  doctrines  of  which  we  arc  so  proud,  and  for  which 


we  have  sacrificed  so  much,  and  with  which  we  feel  certain  to 
succeed.  We  have  not  changed  our  tactics,  nor  do  we  pro- 
pose to.  We  expect  to  elect  our  candidates,  and  to  continue 
the  same  general  C9urse  which  we  have  heretofore  pursued. 

But  what  do  we  find  opposed  to  us  ?  Candidates  taken 
from  our  own  party  by  a  wing  of  discontented  so-called 
reformers — to  the  support  of  whom  are  invited  their  ene- 
mies and  ours,  and  for  what!  simply  for  office,  for  pat- 
ronage, for  spoils  ;  and  how  has  this  been  brought  about, 
and  how  are  our  opponents  seeking  to  carry  on  this  cam- 
paign ?  They  do  not  pretend  it  is  Democratic ;  they  do 
not  pretend  it  is  Republican  ;  they  do  not  pretend  it  is 
any  thing  in  particular.  It  is  simply  an  aggregation  of  the 
outs  to  get  in ;  at  the  North  for  one  reason,  at  the  South  for 
another ;  in  one  State  for  free  trade,  in  another  for  protec- 
tion ;  in  one  place  pretending  to  give  the  negro  his  rights,  in 
another  to  deprive  him  of  them ;  in  one  section  because  these 
candidates  favored  the  war,  in  another  because  they  favored 
secession.  It  is  all  a  dodge  to  obtain  power  and  plunder.  It 
is  a  fraud  so  stupendous  in  its  inception,  and  fraught  with 
results  so  disastrous  could  it  be  successful — which,  thank  God, 
it  cannot  be— that  it  Would  stamp  American  politics  to  be, 
what  some  of  our  European  friends  claim,  one  grand  scram 
ble  for  office,  regardless  alike  of  the  proprieties  of  political 
warfare,  of  the  amenities  of  civilized  life,  and  of  respect  for 
the  reputation  of  our  country. 

And  while  I  do  not,  as  I  said  before,  propose  to  apologize 
for  our  party  or  its  candidates,  yet  the  campaign  is  being 
carried  on  in  a  spirit  so  unjust  and  so  vindictive,  that  I  do 
propose  to  defend  our  candidates  from  some  of  the  false 
aspersions  which  have  been  hurled  against  them. 

ATTACKS  ON  PRIVATE  CHARACTER. 
Never  before  in  any  presidential  campaign  lias  the  private 
life  and  character  of  the  candidates  been  assailed  with  such 
malignity  and  mendacity,  as  has  that  of  the  Republican  can- 
didates in  the  present  canvass,  by  the  men  who  propose  to 
rise  on  the  ruins  of  those  they  would  crush,  and  whose  sole 
watchword  is,  "  Anything  to  beat  Grant." 


6 

Never  before  has  my  anger  been  roused  to  such  a  pitch  ; 
never  have  I  felt  all  the  manhood  within  me  tingling  with 
indignation,  as  now,  when  I  see  the  vile  and  unjust  attacks 
upon  the  President  of  the  United  States,  a  man  to  whom  the 
country  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  no  honors  which  it  may 
heap  upon  him  can  ever  liquidate,  and  the  sum  of  which  can- 
not be  expressed  in  dollars,  however  many.  From  gentlemen 
occupying  high  places  of  honor  in  our  land,  down  to  the 
meanest  penny-a-liner  of  a  country  newspaper,  our  enemies 
are  searching  their  vocabulary  for  terms  of  vituperation  with 
which  to  traduce  the  character  of  this  man,  to  whom  they  at 
least  owe  respect  for  the  services  he  has  rendered  their  coun- 
try, if  they  cannot  treat  him  decently  as  a  man. 

Twelve  or  fourteen  years  ago  there  was  in  existence  a  mod- 
est hide  and  leather  firm,  doing  business  in  Galena,  under 
the  name  of  J.  ^R.  Grant.  Being  in  the  same  business, 
my  knowledge  of  these  gentlemen  commenced  with  that 
time.  They  were  marked  in  all  our  agency  books  as  moder- 
ate in  capital,  fair  in  credit,  and  high  in  character.  It  is 
well  known  in  the  mercantile  community  how  much  care  is 
taken  that  no  injustice  shall  be  done  any  party  in  his  "  mark- 
ings," as  it  is  termed,  and  that  while  no  one  shall  be  rated  so 
high  as  to  give  him  credit  unwarranted  by  his  capital  or  .char- 
acter, yet  that  no  injustice  be  done  him,  and  that  he  shall 
have  the  full  benefit  of  all  which  he  has  that  tends  to  entitle 
him  to  public  confidence.  And  now,  while  one  of  this  family 
is  out  of  mercantile  business  and  in  political  life,  we  find  a 
systematic  attempt  on  the  part  of  his  opponents  to  write  him 
down  in  the  political  "  markings  "  as  bankrupt,  and  entitled 
to  no  credit,  either  for  capacity,  honesty,  or  deportment. 
One  would  think  by  the  reading  of  Mr.  Sumner's  speech,  of 
which  they  claim  to  have  distributed  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  copies,  that  General  Grant  had  absolutely  no  virtues,  and 
he  is  accused  as  being  guilty  of  nearly  all  the  crimes  forbid- 
den in  the  Decalogue.  Others  have  followed  as  nearly  as 
possible  in  the  wake  of  the  eminent  Senator,  taking  their  cue 
from  him,  and  thinking  to  serve  their  cause  by  not  only  re- 
echoing his  malignant  attacks,  but  by  inventions  of  their  own 
which  are  equally  false. 


I  have  given  such  attention  to  some  of  the  charges  made 
against  him  as  my  opportunities  enabled  me  to  do,  and^pro- 
pose  to  answer  a  few  of  them,  to  brand  them  as  falsehoods 
pure  and  undiluted  and  without  the  slightest  foundation,  and 
to  defend  my  candidate  for  President  against  these  unjust 
aspersions',  with  at  least  as  much  care  for  his  character  now 
that  he  is  President  of  the  United  States  as  I  would  have 
done  for  his  credit  had  he  continued  in  the  hide  and  leather 
business.  And  I  propose  to  speak. about  nothing  which  I 
do  not  know.  I  propose  to  make  no  statements  which  will 
not  bear  investigation.  I  shall  touch  on  no  points  which  I 
have  not  myself  looked  into,  and  I  back  my  assertions  with 
all  my  business  and  political  character. 

CHICAGO   LAND. 

The  President  appointed  as  Minister  to  Belgium  an  old 
Galena  friend  of  his,  but  latterly  a  resident  of  Chicago,  J. 
Russell  Jones. 

A  few  weeks  ago '  the  Chicago  Tribune  found  a  magnificent 
mare's  nest,  in  the  fact  that  Mr.  Jones  had  deeded  thirty-one 
acres  of  land  to  the  President,  and  the  consideration  which 
the  deed  called  for  was  one  dollar  ;  thus  accusing  Mr.  Jones 
of  having  bought  his  appointment.  As  he  has  made  a  most 
excellent  minister  while  abroad,  and  has  given  universal  satis- 
faction to  the  Americans  who  have  had  business  witli  him, 
the  New  York  Tribune  thought  it  a  good  chan-ce  to  blacken 
both  his  character  and  the  President's  by  rehearsing  this 
shocking  specimen  of  bargain  and  sale,  and  labored  in 
column  after  column,  article  after  article,  and  day  after  day, 
to  show  to  its  virtuous  readers  how  corrupt  an  administra- 
tion we  had,  and  how  necessary  it  was  to  put  a  keen,  smart, 
bright,  honest  man  like  "  Uncle  Horace  "  in  the  Presidential 
chair.  Now  I  propose  to  give  the  story  of  this  land,  since  so 
much  has  been  said  about  it,  and  I  speak  by  the  book.  I 
know  what  I  am  talking  about,  for  I  have  looked  into  it.  In 
1867  Mr.  Jones  proposed  to  the  then  General  Grant  to  join 
him  in  the  purchase  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  acres  of 
land  near  Chicago,  at  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars 
per  acre,  which  he  (Mr.  Jones)  thought  would  be  a  good 


speculation.  So  did  the  General,  but  having  no  money  to 
invest,  lie  was  forced  to  decline,  and  Mr.  Jones  found  another 
man  to  go  in  with  him.  About  a  year  later  Mr.  Jones  told 
the  General  that  the  party  with  whom  he  had  bought  wished 
to  sell  out  his  interest  at  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per 
acre,  and  offered  General  Grant  a  share  in  it.  General  Grant 
wrote  him  that  he  would  take  one-half  of  the  interest  which 
Mr.  Jones  was  to  buy  of  his  partner.  Before  the  General's 
letter  reached  Mr.  Jones,  the  latter  had  made  the  purchase 
on  his  own  account,  and  of  course  had  taken  the  deed  to  him- 
self. General  Grant  borrowed  the  money  temporarily  with 
which  to  pay  for  it  in  part,  and  when  he  sold  his  house  in 
Washington  and  paid  the  balance,  Mr.  Jones  transferred  to 
him  an  undivided  one-quarter,  and  the  consideration  expressed 
in  the  deed  was  one  dollar,  a  custom  too  common  among  real 
estate  dealers  to  call  for  any  comment  or  even  attract  atten- 
tion. General  Grant  actually  paid,  and  this  I  know,  for 
principal,  interest,  searching  records,  stamps,  <fec.,  eleven 
thousand,  two  hundred  and  twenty  odd  dollars.  To  such 
desperate  straits  have  the  opponents  of  the  President  been 
driven,  to  blacken  his  name  and  that  of  his  efficient  officers. 
But  this,  ridiculous  as  it  is,  does  not  begin  to  compare  in 

infamy  with  the  stories  about  the  President's 

' 

LONG   BRANCH    COTTAGE. 

A  large  amount  of  the  capital  which  has  been  contributed 
to  the  Democratic  concern  with  which  to  do  business  against 
the  President,  has  been  the  tcry  that  Mr.^Murphy  gave  him  a 
cottage  at  Long  Branch,  in  consideration  of  which  the  Presi- 
dent appointed  him  Collector.  On  examination  into  the  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  purchase  of  this  cottage,  this 
dreadful  transaction  on  the  part  of  tjie  President,  which  has 
caused  the  saints  of  the  Democratic  party  to  hold  up  their 
hands  in  holy  horror  for  so  long  a  time,  vanishes  into  thin  air. 
Mr.  Murphy  has  published  a  card  in  which  he  says  he  did  not 
give  the  President  a  cottage  at  Long]  Branch  or  anything'of 
the  kind,  or  contribute,  towards  one,  noi^does  he  know  of  [any 
person  who  did.  Stories  have  been  circulated  with  great 
persistency  that  a  gentlemen  in  New  York  had  known  or  seen 


or  heard  of  a  paper  having  been  circulated  in  order  to  raise 
money  to  buy  a  cottage  for  the  President  at  Long  Branch,  or 
somewhere  else,  and  the  opponents  of  the  President  have 
undertaken  to  make  much  capital  out  of  this  wild  rumor,  but 
come  to  chase  it  down,  there  is  nothing  in  it.  No  man  has 
ever  circulated  a  paper  for  such  a  purpose  by  authority  or 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  President  or  any  of  his  friends. 
And  yet  in  spite  of  the  proved  falsity  of  these  rumors,  prom- 
inent gentlemen  and  newspapers  continue  to  charge  that  of- 
fice-holding friends  of  the  President  assisted  him  in  some 
manner  in  the  purchase  of  his  Long  Branch  property,  all  of 
which  I  know  to  be  false,  as  certainly  as  a  man  can  know 
anything  of  the  kind  after  a  most  thorough  and  searching 
examination  and  chasing  down  each  story  as  it  appeared. 

Had  the  eminent  gentlemen  who  have  made  these  charges 
given  as  much  attention  to  them  as  one  of  their  constituents 
would  have  done  to  find  out  the  responsibility  of  a  party  to 
whom  he  wanted  to  sell  a  case  of  brogans,  they  would  a 
long  time  ago  have  discovered  their  utter  falsity.  The  truth 
is,  the  President  owns  two  cottages  at  Long  Branch,  in  one  of 
which  he  lives,  and  the  other  he  rents.  None  of  this  property 
has  ever  been  owned  by  Mr.  Murphy,  nor  was  he  in  any  way  con 
nected  with  its  purchase.  During  a  visit  of  the  President  at 
Long  Branch,  some  of  his  friends  expressing  a  wish  that  he 
would  make  that  his  summer  residence,  he  signified  a  willing- 
ness to  do  so  could  a  place  be  found  within  his  pecuniary 
reach  This  was  finally  done,  and  afterwards  an  additional! 
lot  was  purchased,  on  which  he  erected  another  house  at  an 
expense  of  about  $18,000  besides  the  land,  for  which  he  paid 
about  $6,000,  the  money  to  pay  for  the  same  being  raised  by 
the  sale  of  government  bonds  in  which  he  had  invested  the~- 
money  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  liberal  citizens  of 
New  York  while  he  was  General,  and  long  before  he  thought 
of  being  President.  Now  all  this  hue  and  cry  about  the  Pres- 
ident's Long  Branch  cottage  having  been  given  him  by  office- 
holders, is  a  tissue  of  falsehood,  invented  by  people  who  should. 
have  known  better,  and  would,  had  they  been  half  as  careful 
to  look  into  the  truth  ot  stories  while  circulating  them  as 
2 


10 

they  were  zealous  to  give  thorn  additional  publicity  after  they 
had  been  started,  and  shows  the  anxiety  of  our  opponents  to 
make  a  sensation  and  to  create  public  opinion  against  a  politi- 
cal adversary.  And  it  is  all  on  a  par  with  their  tactics. 
Most  of  the  speeches  of  the  eminent  senators,  and  most  of 
the  addresses  and  manifestoes  which  are  issued  from  Liberal 
Republican  headquarters,  are  made  up  of  mere  clap-trap. 
They  assail  the  President  right  and  left,  but  have  very  little 
to  say  against  the  measures  of  his  administration,  and  still 
less  in  favor  of  Horace  Greeley,  his  principles,  his  promises, 
or  what  he  proposes  to  do  in  case  he  should  be  elected.  He 
talks  much  about  hand-shakings  across  imaginary  bloody 
chasms,  dressed  in  an  old  white  hat  and  coat,  and  his  friends 
think  that  this  sort  of  a  show  will  attract  such  attention  as 
to  conceal  his  defects,  and  put  him  into  the  White  House 
with  a  hurrah. 

But  they  will  learn  their  mistake  when  the  question  comes 
before  the  people  for  their  decision.  The  American  public  is 
too  intelligent  to  be  caught  by  any  such  Falstaffian  device. 

The  time  has  passed,  and  the  temper  of  the  people  is  too 
serious  to  care  for  the  ago.  color,  or  style  of  hats  and  coats. 

The  qualities  of  leadership  which  we  now  require  are  hon- 
esty of  heart  and  purpose  that  none  but  proper  measures  may 
be  wished  for,  firmness  and  capacity  of  head  and  brain  to  pro- 
ject, and  strength  and  steadiness  ot  hand  to  execute.  For 
these  qualifications  we  are  quite  willing  our  candidate  should 
be  subjected  to  the  closest  scrutiny.  We  do  not  fear  the 
comparison  with  any  of  his  contemporaries  or  of  any  charac- 
ter of  American  history. 

THE    RAWLINS   SLANDER. 

The  recent  converts  to  Democracy  exhibit  the  same 
traits  and  enthusiasm  for  their  cause,  for  which  new  converts 
are  so  proverbial.  Notably  is  this  so  in  the  case  of  that 
famous  general  who  did  so  much  to  advance  the  respectabili- 
ty ot  the  American  nation  while  representing  it  at  a  foreign 
court,  and  who  has  been  so  notorious  for  his  self-sacrificing 
devotion  to  the  Republican  party,  while  he  was  a  member  of 
it,  and  for  whom  we  have  done  so  much  apologizing  in  time 


11 

past,  which  duty  I  am  thankful  has  now  been  transferred  to 
the  other  side — the  impetuous  and  virtuous  Kilpatrick.  This 
gallant  chieftain,  after  having  been  kicked  out  of  a  New  York 
court,  has  lately  been  disporting  himself  in  Vermont,  and  Hie 
results  of  his  labors  were  plainly  visible  in  our  glorious  vic- 
tory a  few  days  ago.  He  there  turned  upon  his  old  leader  in 
a  manner  as  vile,  as  vindictive,  and  as  malevolent,  as  his  fawn- 
ing had  heretofore  been  conspicuous.  He  did  not  hesitate  to 
charge  the  President  with  behaving  in  an  unfeeling  manner 
towards  General  Rawlins,  between  whom  and  General  Grant 
it  is  well  known  had  existed  a  long  and  intimate  friendship. 
He  there  charged  the  President  with  remaining  at  Saratoga, 
pursuing  a  life  of  pleasure,  while  the  friends  of  poor  Rawlins 
were  telegraphing  him  to  hasten  to  the  bedside  of  the  dying 
Secretary.  The  only  dispatch  received  on  the  Sunday  named 
was  one  from  General  Sherman  that  Rawlins  was  worse  and 
wished  to  see  him ;  though  previous  dispatches,  of  which 
there  were  quite  a  number,  had  been  more  favorable  as  to 
Rawlins'  condition,  and  had  not  indicated  that  he  was  dan- 
gerously ill.  Upon  the  receipt  of  Sherman's  dispatch,  the 
President  hastened,  with  a  single  secretary,  to  take  the 
first  train  from  Saratoga,  not  giving  time  to  his  family  even 
to  accompany  him,  such  was  his  haste,  and  also  breaking  an 
engagement  which  he  had  made  to  go  to  Utica  the  next  day, 
against  the  remonstrances  of  his  friends  and  to  the  great  dis- 
appointment of  thousands  of  people.  He  took  special  trains 
where  he  could,  and  regular  trains  where  he  must,  to  Baltimore, 
where  he  took  special  carriage  across  the  city,  and  on  special 
car  flew  to  Washington,  but  arrived  one  hour  after  the  death 
of  his  old  chief  of  staff  and  favorite  secretary. 

General  Rawlins,  before  his  death,  made  a  will,  leaving  his 
estate  and  children  in  care  of  the  President,  to  which  estate 
the  President  contributed  $2,500,  and  has  ever  since  looked 
carefully  after  those  children  and  the  fund  left  them.  The 
children  are  now  with  a  married  sister  of  General  Rawlins  at 
the  West,  and  are  carefully  watched  over  by  the  President. 
With  his  usual  care  and  solicitude  for  the  interests  of  others, 
he  has  placed  their  property  in  registered  bonds  of  the  United 


12 

States,  in  their  own  names,  to  guard  against  possible  acci- 
dent. 

And  yet  this  Democratic  orator,  this  "  truthful  James  "  of 
this  mongrel  party,  has  the  effrontery  and  shamelessness  to 
accuse  his  old  Commander-in-Chicf  of  acting  towards  his 
friend  and  his  friend's  orphan  children  in  an  unfeeling  man- 
ner. 

Perhaps  such  statements  as  these  are  not  worth  noticing, 
and  yet  as  they  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  stock  in  trade  of  our 
opponents,  I  cannot  hold  my  peace,  but  wish  to  add  my  pro- 
test to  that  of  more  eminent  gentlemen  than  myself,  who 
have  denounced  these  slanders  as  being  without  the  slightest 
shadow  of  a  foundation.  Scarcely  three  months  have  yet 
elapsed  since  this  slanderer  was  asking  the  President  for  still 
further  favors  at  his  hands,  the  refusal  of  which  may  in  some 
degree  account  for  the  bitterness  of  his  hostility. 

THE   COLORED    CADET. 

A  similar  sort  of  a  story  has  been  gotten  up  in  regard  to 
the  President's  conduct  towards  the  colored  cadet  Smith  at 
West  Point.  As  the  Tribune  gives  the  story  in  its  campaign 
sheet,  the  President  is  made  to  say  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
that  he,  the  President,  wanted  the  court-martial  so  made  up 
as  to  dismiss  the  cadet,  when  the  facts  are  exactly  the  re- 
verse. 

Gen.  0.  0.  Howard,  the  well  known  friend  of  the  colored 
people,  was  made  President  of  the  court,  and  the  cadet  was 
not  dismissed,  though  he  was  found  guilty  of  conduct  unbe- 
coming an  officer. 

And  yet  a  Liberal  Republican,  a  gentleman  who  was  some- 
what prominent  in  the  Cincinnati  convention  which  invented 
Mr.  Greeley  as  a  presidential  candidate,  has  declared  in  the 
Tribune  that  Gen.  Howard  told  him  all  this  stuff  about  the 
President's  request  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

The  President,  Secretary  of  War,  and  Gen.  Howard  all 
having  denied  the  whole  story,  it  appears  to  be  now  a  question 
of  veracity  between  the  Liberal  Republican  before  referred  to 
and  Gen.  Howard,  and  no  ojao  who  knows  them  both  will 


13 

hesitate  long  in  deciding  as  to  which  has  the  most  treacherous 
memory. 

No  man.  has  ever  been  more  true  to  the  colored  race,  both 
in  general  and  in  detail,  than  has  our  President.  He  has 
labored  no  less  incessantly  to  keep  cadet  Smith  at  West  Point 
in  spite  of  the  findings  of  the  court  which  were  against  him, 
than  he-has  to  give  our,  colored  friends  all  over  the  South  the 
rights  to  which  the  constitutional  amendments  entitle  them  ; 
and  whether  this  is  appreciated  or  not  by  the  Liberal  Repub- 
lican patron  of  cadet  Smith,  (who,  while  this  colored  United 
States  officer  was  on  a  late  visit  at  his  house,  did  not  allow 
him  to  sit  at  the  table  with  the  family,  but  treated  the  cadet 
like  an  inferior,)  the  colored  people  generally  appreciate  it  and 
ever  have 

The  President's  interest  in  them  is  shown  by  acts  and  deeds, 
and  is  vastly  more  effective  than  the  boasting  words  of  the 
Liberal  Republicans. 

When  the  President  was  nominated  at  Chicago  four  years 
ago,  he  was  not  selected  for  his  known  fidelity  to  the  princi- 
'  pies  of  the  Republican  party,  but  for  his  eminent  services  as 
a  soldier  and  a  citizen.  We  were  not  at  all  certain  at  that 
time  whether  he  would  enter  with  zeal  into  our  particular 
notions  of  equality;  but  we  find,  much  to  our  delight,  that  he 
has  endeavored  to  protect  all  classes  of  citizens,  regardless  of 
color  or  locality,  in  all  the  rights  to  which  they  were  entitled. 
Xo  man  could  be  more  true  to  the  Union  men  of  the  South 
than  has  our  President,  and  in  his  course  towards  them  he 
has  been  manfully  sustained  by  Horace  Greeley,  to  his  honor 
be  it  said.  No  man  has  been  warmer  in  his  encomiums  on 
the  President's  policy  at  the  South  than  Mr.  Greeley,  and  to 
no  man  would  we  have  been  so  reluctant  to  look  upon  as 
an  enemy  of  the  President  as  he.  And  why  does  not  Mr. 
Greeley  like  the  President  ?  He  has  over  and  over  again  de- 
clared that  the  President  had  stood  manfully  by  the  doctrines 
of  the  Republican  party  on  the  question  of  the  colored  race ; 
that  Gen.  Grant  would  be  better  fitted  to  be  President  the 
second  term  than  the  first,  and  that  he  never  had  been  beaten 
and  never  would  be.  To  all  of  which  we  most  heartily  re- 
spond, and  in  which  we  entirely  agree  with  Mr.  Greeley. 


14 

Perhaps  Mr.  Greeley's  opposition  to  the  President  arises 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  not,  like  Mr.  Greeley,  ready  to  let 
the  South  go  out  at  the  opening  of  the  war ;  perhaps  because 
he  was  not  willing,  like  Mr.  Greeley,  to  make  peace  on  any 
terms  during  the  war ;  perhaps  because  he  did  not,  like  Mr. 
Greeley,  approve  of  treating  with  armed  emissaries  of  the  re- 
bellion ;  and  perhaps  the  motive  of  his  action  is  to  be  found 
in  later  and  more  personal  difference  of  opinions. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  antagonistic  opinions,  during  the  war, 
of  the  two  men  who  are  now  rival  candidates,  have  become 
matters  of  history,  and  for  those  opinions  they  must  answer  to 
the  American  people. 

Gen.  Grant  believed  and  acted  upon  the  belief  that  rebel- 
lion was  not  only  unjustifiable,  but  a  crime,  and  should  be 
put  down  ;  that  the  right  of  secession  did  not  exist ;  that  no 
treaty  could  be  made  with  rebels  in  arms ;  that  no  peace  could 
be  valuable  or  lasting  that  was  not  achieved  by  force,  and 
that  the  only  way  to  treat  traitors  in  open  rebellion  was  to 
crush  them  into  submission.  The  result  justifies  the  correct- 
ness of  these  ideas.  Had  we  followed  Mr.  Greeley's  advice 
at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  we  should  not  now  have 
had  a  country,  undivided  and  powerful,  over  which  to  elect 
a  President,  but  should  have  been  broken  up  into  a  group  of 
petty  sovereignties,  without  respect  or  influence  among  the 
nations  of  the  world. 

ECONOMY  OF  THE  PRESIDENT. 
Among  the  characteristics  of  the  President,  which  have 
challenged  my  admiration  from  my  first  acquaintance  with, 
or  knowledge  of  him,  has  been  his  strict  adherence  to  all  the 
rules  of  propriety,  of  deportment,  justice  of  administration, 
and  -economy  of  business  management.  These  were  notably 
shown  while  he  was  in  command  of  the  armies,  as  they  have 
been  during  his  occupancy  of  the  Presidential  chair.  After 
the  surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox  Court  House,  this  mod- 
est gentleman  and  prompt  man,  instead  of  going  to  Richmond 
and  receiving  an  ovation  as  most  commanders  would  have 
done,  and  which  would  have  been  somewhat  excusable,  hur- 


ried  at  once  to  Washington,  the  next  post  of  duty ;  but,  before 
doing  so,  however,  lie  telegraphed  at  once  all  over  the  coun- 
try, that  the  war  was  at  an  end,  that  we  needed  no  more  men, 
and  that  the  recruiting  offices  must  shut  up  shop  instanter, 
which  was  an  immense  saving  to  the  government,  for  every 
day's  business  cost  a  large  sum  of  money.  It  struck  me 
then  as  a  most  timely,  prompt,  and  economical  measure,  and 
increased  my  confidence  in  him,  as  his  first  impulse  was  to 
stop  expenses,  reduce  the  forces,  and  commence  to  liquidate. 

The  difference  between  a  prompt,  economical,  far-sighted 
business  manager^  at  that  critical  juncture,  and  a  hesitating, 
vaccillating,  or  vain  man,  can  be  counted  onlv  by  millions  of 
dollars  of  debt. 

When  we  calculate  the  large  number  of  recruiting  offices, 
then  in  full  operation,  the  amount  of  materials  of  war  being 
manufactured,  the  perfectly  enormous  amount  of  daily  ex- 
penses, which  were  necessarily  being  incurred  in  consequence 
of  the  large  army  we  then  had  in  the  field,  it  is  impossible 
not  to  admire  the  practical  matter-of-fact  view,  which  the 
General  took  of  affairs.  He  had  for  years  been  directing  his 
attention  solely  to  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  paying 
little  or  no  attention  to  its  cost,  but  looking  only  to  results. 
But  no  sooner  was  the  fact  accomplished,  no  sooner  had  this 
long  wished  for,  but  long  delayed  result  been  brought  about, 
than  we -saw  this  mighty  chieftain,  this  great  captain,  who 
apparently  had  no  thoughts  in  his  mind  except  those  of  war, 
at  once  assume  the  reins  of  active  business  management,  at 
once  commence  to  repair  our  losses,  at  once  turn  his  entire 
attention  towards  the  ways  and  means  of  peace. 

How  shall  the  nation  best  and  quickest  get  back  to  its 
peace  footing?  was  the  first  question  he  asks  of  himself.  His 
decisions  were  then,  as  always,  marked  by  a  promptness,  a 
common  sense  judgment,  and  a  sound  discretion,  as  unex- 
pected and  unlooked  for,  as  they  were  proper  and  ec-  uomical. 

He  disbanded  our  armies  quicker  than  any  similar  event 
of  recorded  history,  and  almost  before  the  nation  knew  it, 
we  were  in  the  full  tide  of  peaceful  prosperity  and  develop- 
ment. 


16 

Our  hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers  had  changed  front, 
and  from  being  consumers,  had  become  producers, — another 
proof  not  only  of  the  ability  and  honesty  of  our  General  and 
his  officers,  but  of  the  capacity  of  our  people  for  self  govern- 
ment. 

Had  our  government  contributed  as  much  money  out  of  its 
treasury  as  a  token  of  confidence  in  and  obligation  to  this 
practical,  prompt,  and  silent  General  of  our  armies,  as  have 
other  nations  for  far  less  valuable  services,  it  would  not  have 
paid  to  him  as  much  money  as  he  saved  to  it  by  putting  in 
practice  his  lessons  of  business  life. 

PROPRIETY  OF  THE  PRESIDENT'S  LIFE. 
When  he  assumed  command  of  the  armies  operating  against 
Richmond  he  found  liquors  being  freely  sold  by  sutlers  and 
others,  to  the  great  detriment  and  demoralization  of  the  army, 
and  on  the  4th  of  September,  1864,  he  issued  the  following 
stringent  order : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
CITY  POINT,  VA.,  Sept.  8th,  1864. 

Brigadier  General  M.  R.  Patrick,  Provost  Marshal  General 

Armies  Operating  against  Richmond. 
GENERAL : 

The  attention  of  Lieutenant  General  Grant  having  been 
called  to  the  large  quantities  of  liquor  being  brought  within 
the  lines  of  the  armies  operating  against  Richmond,  he  directs 
that,  from  and  after  this  date,  you  prohibit  all  kinds  of  spirit- 
uous, vinous,  or  malt  liquors  from  being  brought  above  Fort 
Monroe,  Virginia,  except  such  as  belong  to  the  commissary  or 
medical  departments. 

I  am,  General,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
(Signed.)  T.  S.  BOWERS, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

This  order  indicates  that  he  proposed  to  carry  out  through 
the  entire  army  the  same  rules  which  were  observed  at  his 
own  headquarters.  At  no  time  during  his  command  in  the 
East,  which  is  as  far  as  my  information  extends  on  this  point,  did 
he  ever  allow  one  single  drop  of  intoxicating  drink,  either  wine, 
or  spirituous,  or  malt  liquors  at  his  mess  table.  This  rule 


17 

was  strictly  adhered  to,  and  he  enforced  it,  not  only  at  his 
own  mess,  but,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  all  through  the  army. 
Much  was  said  by  his  enemies  at  the  time  of  his  first  sue 
cesses  at  the  West,  in  regard  to  the  habits  of  General  Grant, 
who  was  then  comparatively  unknown.  When  he  was  accused 
to  Mr.  Lincoln  of  using  intoxicating  drinks,  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
the  quaint  manner  in  which  he  refuted  all  such  .accusations, 
simply  replied  "  that  if  such  was  the  fact  he  should  like  some 
of  the  same  kind  of  whisky  for  his  other  generals" — thus  in- 
dicating that  he  did  not  believe  a  word  of  it,  in  which  he  showed 
his  usual  good  sense,  for  persons  who  are  in  the  habit  of  being 
under  the  influence  of  liquor  make  mistakes,  which  Grant  never 
did  in  the  army.  None  of  these  stories  have  ever  been  proven, 
but  on  the  contrary  have  been  found  false  whenever  examined 
into.  One  of  the  notable  cases  was  at  the  battle  of  Sliiloh, 
where  he  was  accused  by  the  whole  rebel  element  in  our  midst 
of  having  been  under  the  influence  of  intoxicating  liquor. 
The  following  letter  from  his  then  Chief  of  Staff  seems  to 
settle  the  question  so  far  as  that  day  is  concerned : 

CHICAGO,  Sept.  4,  1872. 
Col.  Isaac  o.  Stewart : 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  note  of  the  2d  inst.  is  just  received,  and  in  reply  I 
have  to  state  that  you  are  authorized  on  my  behalf  to  deny  in  the  most 
emphatic  manner  all  statements  of  Gen.  Grant  having  been  drunk  or  in 
any  degree  under  the  influence  of  liquor  at  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  I  was  at 
this  time  his  Chief  of  Staff  and  Chief  of  Artillery.  I  breakfasted  with  the 
General  at  Savannah  on  Sunday,  the  first  day  of  the  battle.  I  went  on 
board  the  boat  with  him  and  rode  into  the  field  with  him  at  about  81-2 
o'clock,  in  person,  and  was  necessarily  with  hini,  except  at  intervals  of  ab- 
sence on  duty,  during  the  whole  day.  I  lay  down  with  him  long  after  dark 
that  night,  on  a  small  parcel  ofhay  which  the  Quartermaster  put  down  to 
keep  us  out  of  the  mud,  in  the  rear  of  the  artillery  line  on  the  left,  and  I 
never  heard  till  long  afterward  of  any  idea  entertained  by  anybody  that 
he  was  drunk,  nor  did  I  see  him  drink  during  the  day,  and  I  am  sure  ho 
was  perfectly  sober  as  be  was  self-possessed  and  collected  during  the  vary- 
ing fortunes  of  that  celebrated  battle.  If  there  are  any  words  in  which  I 
can  deny  the  miserable  charge  more  fully  and  distinctly,  I  am  ready  to 
adopt  them. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  D.  WEBSTER. 

Late  Brevet  Major-General  Volunteers,  and  Chief  of  Staff  to  Gen.  W.  T. 

Sherman. 

And  so  it  is  with  all  these  stories.  No  man  was  ever  more 
careful  of  the  influence  of  his  example  than  Gen.  Grant 
all  through  his  military  life — nor  did  his  thoughtfulness  in 


18 

this  respect  end  when  he  was  elevated  to  the  Presidency,  but 
he  carried  out  the  same  idea  in  high  places. 

On  the  first  New  Year's  day  after  his  inauguration,  he  re- 
quested his  cabinet  to  refrain  from  having  any  intoxicat- 
ing drink  on  their  refreshment  tables.  This  request  was 
gladly  complied  with,  except  in  the  case  of  one  officer  who 
was  not  present  when  the  request  was  made,  and  ever  since 
this  has  been  the  rule  with  the  President  and  Cabinet  on  New 
Year's  day;  thus  setting  an  example  at  the  capital  of  the  na- 
tion, and  in  high  quarters,  which  it  would  be  well  for  our 
country  to  have  everywhere  followed.  Many  of  you  will  rec- 
ollect with  what  pleasure  the  fact  was  known  at  the  time. 
His  deportment  and  example  has  always  been  on  the  side  of 
public  morality  and  virtue,  to  which  I  can  bear  much  personal 
testimony,  and  which  has  not  yet  been  disputed  by  any  credi- 
ble witness. 

His  language  is  singularly  chaste  and  moderate,  as  is  his 
life.  It  is  the  universal  testimony  that,  since  he  has  been  Pres- 
ident no  man  has  ever  heard  him  use  an  expression  in  private 
conversation  that  was  not  proper  to  be  made  on  the  platform. 
Having  had  much  opportunity  to  observe  him,  I  wish  to  bear 
witness  to  the  propriety  of  his  life.  Having  seen  him  Under 
many  varied  and  peculiar  circumstances,  never  in  a  single  in- 
stance have 'I  seen  anything  in  him  which  I-could  regret,  and 
all  stories  reflecting  upon  the  propriety  of  his  life  I  believe  to  be 
false.  In  fact,  1  Icnoiv  them  to  be  so,  as  much  as  any  man  can 
know  the  facts  concerning  one  with  whom  he  is  on  familiar 
terms,  but  with  whom  he  is  not  in  constant  communication. 

He  is  singularly  discreet  also  in  regard  to  promises  of  pat- 
ronage. General  Pleasanton,  who  was  a  mutual  friend  of  the 
President  and  Senator  Sclmrz,  undertook  to  bring  them  to- 
gether, and  has  made  a  singular  statement,  intimating  that 
the  President  promised  patronage  to  the  Senator  if  he  would 
go  for  certain  measures.  Being  in  Washington  myself  at  about 
the  same  time,  December,  1870,  I  undertook  to  do  the  same 
thing,  and  asked  the  President  if  he  would  not  see  the  senator 
and  undertake  to  reconcile  their  difficulties.  He  replied  that 
lie  knew  of  no  reason  why  there  should  be  any  difficulty  be- 


19 

tween  them,  and  said  he  should  be  glad  to  meet  the  senator, 
which  I  communicated  to  Senator  Schurz,  who  declined  to 
visit  the  President  unless  invited  to  do  so  in  writing.  Nothing 
was  said  or  intimated  to  me  by  the  President  about  patronage, 
and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  General  Pleasanton  has  stated 
to  a  gentleman  within  the  last  month,  that  the  first  mention 
of  patronage  came  from  the  senator  himself. 

THE  BOWEN-SHERMAN  HOUSE. 
And  speaking  of  patronage,  there  has  been  one  distorted 
story  that  would  never  have  been  given  to  the  public,  probably, 
had  the  President  appointed  Mr.  Sayles  J.  Bowen  minister  to 
the  Argentine  Republic,  as  Mr.  Bowen  last  winter  requested, 
nay,  almost  demanded.  It  seems  that  in  the  winter  of  1869 
General  Grant  sold  his  house,  through  Judge  Latta,  a  real 
estate  broker  of  Washington,  to  one  Sayles  J.  Bowen,  for 
forty  thousand  dollars,  and  Mr.  Bowen  put  up  with  the  broker 
one  thousand  dollars  to  bind  the  bargain.  When  the  gentle- 
men from  New  York  came  on  to  present  General  Sherman 
with  a  house,  they  took  a  fancy  to  this  same  house,  and  offered 
to  take  it  at  the  same  price  and  pay  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars ft>r  the  furniture,  for  which  General  Grant  had  no  use, 
the  White  House  to  which  he  was  about  to  remove  having  its 
own  furniture.  Mr.  Bowen  was  asked  if  he  was  willing  to 
cancel  the  contract  and  take  back  his  one  thousand  dollars, 
to  which  he  readily  assented,  General  Grant  paying  the 
broker's  commission  and  all  expenses.  After  General  Sher- 
man had  taken  possession,  he  for  some  reason  thought  he 
would  prefer  the  money  to  the  house,  and  offered  it  again  to 
Mr.  Bowen  for  the  same  price  he  had  before  agreed  to  pay 
General  Grant,  which  offer  was  not  accepted ;  and  that  is  all 
there  is  about  the  Bowen-Sherman  house,  and  the  transaction 
would  have  remained  in  oblivion  had  the  President  given  Mr. 
Bowen  all  the  patronage  he  desired,  which  was  not  a  little. 
The  New  York  World  published  a  distorted  statement  of  the 
facts  reflecting  on  the  President  some  time  ago,  which  Mr. 
Bowen  denied  in  a  card. 


20 

But  in  doing  as  he  lias,  Mr.  Bowen  has  only  followed  the 
example  of  his  superiors,  as  perhaps  Senator  Simmer's  oppo- 
sition to  the  President  might  have  been  more  mild,  had  ho 
appointed  the  senator's  biographer,  Mr.  Phelps,  to  the  posi- 
tion of  U.  S.  Marshal  and  turned  out  General  Andrews,  which 
the  senator  persistently  urged. 

He  might  also  perhaps  to  this  day  have  retained  the  friend- 
ship of  Mr.  George  Wilkes  had  he  appointed  him  Minister  to 
Mexico,  for  which  Mr.  Wilkes  thought  himself  so  well  fitted, 
and  in  which  the  President  differed  from  him.  Yet  the  Pres- 
ident tried  to  please  Mr.  Wilkes  by  appointing  the  now  famous 
George  H.  Butler,  Consul-General  to  Cairo,  for  which  Mr. 
Wilkes  pleaded  personally  and  earnestly,  he  being  the  only 
man  who  did  back  this  appointment. 

Whether  the  editor  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times  would  have 
been  any  better  Minister  to  Mexico  than  his  protegg  Butler 
was  Consul  to  Cairo,  is  a  problem  which,  alas  !  will  never  be 
solved. 

SPECIMEN    OF    INDEPENDENT    JOURNALISM. 
On  the  22d  of  June  last,  the  editor  of  a  not  entirely  unin- 
fluential  paper  in    New  England,  in  writing    of  the*Pifth 
Avenue  Conference  of   the  Liberal  Republicans   and  Dem- 
ocrats, alluded  to  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Greeley  as  follows : 

"  Whatever  might  have  been  the  sentiment  of  the  people  immediately 
after  the  nomination,  and  however  severe  the  disappointment,  one  thing 
was  certain  from  the  tone  and  temper  of  this  carefully  selected  conference 
of  men,  who  had  been  or  were  supposed  to  be  disaffected  at  the  result,  to 
wit :  that  the  country  had  settled  down  to  it,  and  wisely  or  unwisely,  de- 
cided to  accept  and  make  the  best  of  it.  There  was  a  very  frank  disclo- 
sure of  personal  objections  to  the  candidate,  and  no  one  pretended,  as 
some  of  the  lying  politicians  who  re-nominated  Grant  the  other  day  did, 
that  he  was  their  first  choice,  or  that  he  was  anybody's  ideal  of  a  candi- 
date. That  sort  of  nonsense  is  for  people  who  discover  heroic  qualities  in 
a  horse-jockey,  statesmanship  in  a  dog-fancier,  and  moral  worth  in  the 
companion  of  lewd  women  and  base  men." 

When  asked  personally  if  these  insinuations  were  aimed  at 
Gen.  Grant,  he  frankly  said  they  were,  and  was  told  that  they 
were  every  one  false,  but  did  not  retract  them.  Now  the  fact 


21 

about  Gen.  Grant's  horses  is,  that  while  he  loves  a  good 
horse — as  do  most  of  us — and  is  a  good  judge  of  one — as,  alas ! 
most  of  us  are  not — yet  he  never  owned  a  horse  for  running 
or  trotting,  keeping,  in  fact,  no  "  fast  horses"  at  all,  not  one 
of  them  ever  having  been  on  a  race-course,  but  uses  what  he 
does  keep  simply  for  driving.  Nor  has  he  ever  been  at  any 
race  since  he  has  been  President.  Who  of  us  has  done  bet- 
ter ?  He  has  never  owned  a  dog,  they  being  one  of  his  an- 
tipathies. The  other  insinuations  arc  too  base  to  need  reply ; 
suffice  it  to  say,  that  no  gentleman,  except  the  one  alluded  to, 
has  to  my  knowledge  ever  dared  to  make  such  an  insinuation  ; 
and  he  is  no  longer  an  editor,  but  has  gone  to  his  own  place. 
He  is  now  chairman  of  a  Greeley  State  Committee.  The  New 
York  Tribune  and  the  Democratic  press  of  the  country  has 
constantly  talked  about  Grant's  dogs',  and  "  Marshal  Brown's 
pups."  How  this  stuff  originated  no  one  knows.  The  only 
connection  between  them  is,  that  Gen.  Grant  happened  at 
one  time  to  live  in  the  same  block  with  Marshal  Brown 
whose  son-in-law  had  a  fancy  for  dogs. 

SENECA   STONE    CO. 

But  one  of  the  most  absurd  stories,  after  all,  that  has  been 
trumped  up  against  the  President,  is  the  Seneca  sandstone 
quarry  business,  of  which  I  would  not  speak  but  that  I  have 
known  something  of  it  from  the  start,  for  I  talked  some  of 
taking1  stock  in  it  when  it  was  started,  but  did  not.  Gen.  Grant 
bought  in  1867,  for  an  investment,  as  he  would  buy  anything 
else,  and  as  plenty  of  other  people  did  buy,  $10,000  worth  of 
stock  of  the  Seneca  Stone  Company.  It  has  never  paid  him 
a  cent  of  dividend,  nor  has  it  much  if  any  market  value  now. 
No  public  building  has  ever  been  built  of  it,  though  it  has 
been  used  considerably  for  other  building  purposes.  This  is 
all  there  is  in  this  much  talked-of  story.  Why  the  President 
has  not  a  right  to  own  stock  in  a  stone  quarry  as  much  as  any 
other  man,  is  a  mystery  to  me,  though  as  a  business  man  I 
wouldn't  hold  the  stock  unless  it  paid  dividends,  which  it 
does  not. 

I  have  now  alluded  to  most  of  the  prominent  attacks  against 
the  President's  personal  character,  and  have  been  at  some 


22 

pains  to  get  at  the  facts,  and  I  firmly  believe  he  is  as  honest 
and  pure  as  he  is  modest  and  courageous.  Occupied  as  he 
constantly  is,  when  in  Washington,  with  public  business, 
scores  of  people  seeing  him  at  all  hours  of  the  day — standing 
on  a  pedestal  so  high  that  his  slightest  acts,  both  public  and 
private,  are  plainly  visible  to  the  eye  of  a  jealous  public — 
standing  as  he  now  does  between  two  great  parties,  and  with 
the  disposition  now  so  prevalent  to  pull  every  man  down  who 
is  prominent,  the  only  wonder  is  that  nothing  has  yet  been 
brought  against  him  which  investigation  does  not  entirely 
clear  up. 

.     CIVIL    SERVICE. 

One  of  the  topics  which  has  properly  agitated  the  public 
mind  of  late,  has  been  the  so-called  Civil  Service  Reform. 
There  is  quite  a  general  desire  on  the  part  of  our  people  vto 
raise  the  standard  of  our  Civil  Service  to  a  higher  degree  of 
efficiency.  The  President  has  been  very  earnest  in  this  mat- 
ter, as  he  is  in  every  thing  in  which  he  heartily  believes  and 
which  comes  in  his  line  of  duty. 

He  is  determined  that  so  far  as  it  is  in  his  power,  the  civil 
department  of  our  government  shall  be  as  well  administered 
as  are  its  military  and  naval — and  to  this  end  is  he  directing 
his  best  energies.  He  finds  many  difficulties  in  the  way,  as 
may  naturally  be  supposed,  still  difficulties  are  more  easily 
overcome  by  him  than  in  the  case  of  most  men,  as  he  never 
gives  up  when  he  thinks  he  is  right.  This  trait  of  character 
gives  any  man  great  power.  It  has  come  to  my  knowledge 
that  within  the  last  month  a  member  of  Congress,  upon  ask- 
ing him  to  remove  an  officer  for  political  reasons,  received  for 
his  reply,  that  political  grounds  alone  were  not  sufficient  to 
cause  the  removal  of  any  man — and  that  for  himself  he  pro- 
posed that  Mr.  Curtis  and  his  plan  of  Civil  Service  Reform 
should  have  a  fair  trial. 

And  now,  why  should  not  this  man  bo  re-elected  President 
of  the  United  States?  The  acts  of  his  administration  are  not 
even  much  attacked  by  our  opponents.  Why  should  not 
Republicans  and  Democrats  unite  in  continuing  an  adminis- 


EE    000003756    4 

trationrwhich  has  given  us  peace  at  home  and  abroad,  an 
economical  government,  a  large  reduction  of  both  taxation 
and  the  public  debt  at  the  same  time,  and  has  in  all  particu- 
lars fully  made  good  the  promises  and  predictions  with  which 
it  started  ?  What  we  need  in  this  great  and  productive  coun- 
try more  than  all  else  in  a  government  is  stability,  that  our 
financial  and  domestic  affairs  shall  be  carried  on  with  an 
even  hand.  So  long  as  this  is  done  we  shall  have  the  same 
prosperous  times  which  we  have  enjoyed  during  the  last  three 
years,  and  if  we  continue  the  present  administration  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  we  shall  continue  to  prosper  and 
to  add  to  our  wealth  and  resources,  and  thus  add  to  our 
power  and  respectability.  I  am  interested  in  the  active,  pro- 
ductive, material  affairs  of  the  community  in  which  I  reside. 
I  belong  to  the  class  that  take  risks,  own  property,  owe 
debts,  and  employ  labor,  and  my  experience  is  that  with  an 
even,  stable,  and  economical  administration  of  our  govern- 
mental affairs  I  can  make  more  money,  pay  better  prices  for  , 
labor,  and  pay  my  debts  easier  than  I  can  to  have  a  vacilla- 
ting or  an  uneven  course  pursued  by  those  in  authority.  Do 
not  all  of  you  find  this  to  be  your  own  experience  ?  We  are 
all  of  us  under  great  obligations  to  Mr.  Boutwell  for  his  hon- 
est and  even  administration  of  our  finances,  and  for  one  I 
wish  to  have  another  four  years  of  just  such  opportunities  of 
developing  the  resources  of  this  great  nation  as  the  last  three 
have  been.  Mr.  Greeley's  constant  shrieking  to  have  the 
Treasury  depleted  of  its  gold  and  to  resume  specie  payment 
by  legal  enactment,  is  too  absurd  to  demand  a  moment's  no- 
tice from  any  thoughtful  business  man.  Whatever  his  policy 
might  be  in  regard  to  the  questions  concerning  the  races,  it 
certainly  could  be  no  better  than  General  Grant's,  and  1  have 
no  anxiety  to  see  it  tried  ;  but  I  consider  his  head  not  level 
enough  to  direct  our  finances,  and  the  other  great  operations 
of  our  nation.  Capital  and  labor  always  shrink  from  experi- 
ments. Neither  one  nor  the  other  has  in  this  crisis  of  our 
country's  history  and  developement,  any  ambition  to  follow 
the  vagaries  of  a  visionary  brain  like. Mr.  Greeley's. 
-Parties  bid  fair  to  have  their  foundations  broken  up  as  tb.0 


24 

result  of  this  election.  The  Democratic  party  has  already 
sold  out  its  birthright,  and  from  present  prospects  for  a  very 
small  mess  of  pottnge.  Whether  it  can  ever  regain  its  as- 
cendancy is  certainly  problematical.  It  surely  ought  not  to 
be  permitted  to  do  so  unless  it  can  be  a  better  party  than  the 
sample  you  gentlemen  have  had  here  in  the  city^of  New 
York. 

The  only  principle  to  which  it  has  always  been,  true  is 
that  which  one  of  its  leaders  said  kept  it  together, — the  co- 
hesive attraction  of  public  plunder.  From  this  principle  it 
has  never  swerved.  It  has  never  failed  to  keep  the  spoils 
fully  in  its  eye,  or,  for  that  matter,  to  get  them  fully  in  its 
hands,  and  should  they  succeed  with  Mr.  Greeley  as  their 
leader,  it  is  quite  a  question  whether  they  will  not  give  the 
same  assiduous  attention  to  the  treasury  at  Washington  that 
they  did  to  the  treasury  of  New  York  City  in  their  successful 


But  a  change  has  and  will  come  in  your  State,  and  1  pre- 
dict that  after  the  next  inauguration  of  Governor,  if  any  man 
attempts  to  haul  out  any  public  plunder  he  will  be  shot  on 
the  spot. 

It  is  a  good  rule  to  stand  by  the  party  that  has  stood  by 
the  principles  which  we  hold  most  dear ;  and  when  they  say 
we  can  be  just  as  good  Republicans  and  follow  Mr.  Groeley 
as  if  we  follow  Gen.  Grant,  I  take  issue  on  it  at  once.  It  is 
impossible  to  exactly  tell  our  political  future,  (except  that  the 
election  of  Gen.  Grant  is  getting  to  be  a  certainty,)  nor  can 
any  of  us  tell  exactly  to  what  political  party  he  may  belong 
four  years  hence  ;  but  for  this  campaign  and  this  election  I 
propose  to  stand  by  the  regular  Republican  organization — by 
that  party  which  has  never  turned  its  back  on  any  man  be- 
cause he  was  poor,  or  because  he  was  ignorant,  or  because  he 
was  black. 


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